Assimilate
by PhantasmagoricalPandemonium
Summary: Danger is revisited in the most confusing of ways,leaving Claire disoriented and lost in the newly reformed Morganville.
1. Chapter 1

Claire had been awake for an hour, lounging in her bed in a blissful state. Life was carrying on in Morganville; the calm seas after the catastrophe. The town was rebuilding itself; structurally, at least. Claire wondered if the same went for its residents.

Four people had disappeared over that course of the past week, and the vampires were always lurking in the shadows; contracts and restrictions of the peculiarities of the town seemingly nullified. Amelie looked over the reconstruction of the dismal decay the town had undergone, Oliver lurking close by her, keen on raising the vampire species alone. She no longer saw to the people, and the plans of the future town suddenly became a mystery unbeknownst to its occupants. Even Claire, the one who had before been so involved in the towns' secrets, seemed obsolete.

Even after the trauma of the draug, the citizens of Morganville did the only thing they could; wait and endure. Claire could not recall ever having to go through such an anxious stagnation, and her mind rebelled, finding jobs around the house.

Yesterday, she had cleaned the whole house, head to toe.

The day before, she and her roommates had given the house a new coat of pale yellow paint.

And today would pass just the same, slow and tranquil, but so overly covert. Claire thought of Myrnin, all the while. He hadn't called her, and she eventually gave up trying to reach him. She stopped asking Oliver where he was, and she stopped studying the work they had been fervently captured in the time they had worked together.

_Have been working together,_ Claire silently corrected herself. He was there in the lab she could no longer bring herself to enter, hiding from the town. So why did she talk about him like he was dead?

Because she missed him. Her very insides yearned to be taught by him, the intriguing vampire that had so often betrayed her trust. She was constantly pulled towards him, bound in a gravity she had never before let herself know existed.

She didn't love him. He was far too complicated for her to simply comply romantic feelings with, and she knew she never would truly understand him, as hard as she had tried. His absence had created an unexpected void, lowering down on her until she couldn't go a second without wishing to hear his voice, just once.

And yet, after all that, she couldn't hate him. He had vanished from sight, and taken her worries with him. He had ceased to exist in Morganville, lurking in the dark crevices of the town that Claire had feared in times like these. Myrnin was far beyond her reach, no matter what resources Claire could use to find him. The town had shut the humans out, hiding its secrets once again in times of utter confusion.

She sat up in her room, one that no longer felt familiar to her. The house had changed in more ways than Claire cared to dive into, but it was something to do with Miranda, the newly-bestowed phantom of the Glass house. Combing fingers through her hair, Claire pulled herself out of the tangle of her sheets, stepping into the jeans she had worn yesterday. Rounding to face the mirror, she saw how…_ old _she looked. Morganville had aged her, crept into her youth and terrorized her into growing up. The town, in all truth, had changed Claire Danvers in more ways she could ever know.

Halfway down the stairs, she was met with the vibrant aroma of breakfast. Eve seemed to be trying to brighten up the run-down house with new foods, and it almost worked. Almost.

She heard the voices of her friends just down the hall in the kitchen, joking about the scrambled eggs and laughing half-heartedly. Just steps before she turned into the dining room, Miranda materialized from thin air in front of her, and Claire gasped with a sharp intake of surprise.

"_God, _Miranda! Don't do that! Ever!" She was upset by how unstable she sounded, and the smug look visible on the ghost's face as she became more and more solid. She had more color in her non-existent flesh, Claire realized; she seemed livelier in death than she had in life. Almost… more pleasant.

Miranda gave a small, not quite apologetic smile. "I just had to tell you not to try and run from him. It never works, you know. It will always either be his fondness for you," she paused, concern pulling at her mouth, "or his sickness. But don't try to run."

Claire could feel her forehead crease in questioning frustration, and she hardly had time to open her mouth before Miranda was gone, like a strand of dust in the morning breeze.

And then she felt it. The pull from the wall behind her, energy flowing through the whole house. The walls gave a shudder that seemed to bring them back to life, and Claire couldn't even manage a scream before the portal grabbed her and dragged her through the dark.

….

One moment, she was being pulled through the dark abyss, and the next she was face down on the cold floor of the lab, pinned by a stiff, unbreakable grasp on her shoulders. She froze, feeling a cold breath on the back of her neck, two pinpricks poised lightly but threateningly on her trembling skin. It took a moment to manage a small, trembling voice.

"_Myrnin?"_

The world was a blur again, as she was turned over so quickly she didn't have time to catch her breath. She gave a pained gasp as her back was slammed against a lab table, the crazed, tinted eyes of Myrnin looking brazenly into hers. He backed away a bit when he recognized her, concern teeming his somber face.

"My dear child. You should have known better than to come here."

"I don't-"

He rounded on her suddenly, knocking her down with one lunge and delivering a swift blow into her ribs. Black splotches ate away at Claire's vision as she struggled to scream, but his cold hands were clamped over her throat.

_Playing with his food._

She struggled for air, coming down unsuccessful. She realized how very torn and desperate he looked, and how very heart broken, as her eyes drifted shut and her head hit the hard floor, confusion colliding with the black void.


	2. Chapter 2

The throbbing in her head slowly pulled Claire back into consciousness; the dull, pulsing ache making her more and more aware of her surroundings. The cold steel of the cot she was on was stiff beneath her head, plastered under her numb body. She focused on the crumbling ceiling, which looked oddly close to her head…..

Myrnin had _attacked her._ She grimaced at the recalled pain in her side, trying to take in her situation. Shouldn't she be dead? A lifeless corpse on the laboratory floor, Myrnin close by, her blood still on his lips? She skimmed her neck with her fingertips for puncture wounds, and found none.

It took a great deal of concentration to turn her heavy skull to the side, focusing on the hazy view in front of her. A wave of pain struck her, and her hand came up to her head, meeting a bump the size of an egg. She lifted her head as far up as she could mange, holding her ribs, and stopped when she saw the iron wrapping around her container.

She was in a _cage._

_No no no no no…._ She pulled herself shakily off the narrow steel bed and collapsed to the ground, continuing to crawl her way a couple of feet to a heavy metal door. She pushed on it, hard, and started to hammer with her fists.

Nothing.

She balled up on the cold floor, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to suffocate the sharp pain in her chest. Her breath came in quick, shallow gasps, each one leaving her lungs buckling under the pain. She was certain her ribs were broken, and for now she was dazed and disoriented, locked in a cage Godknowswhere, Myrnin probably prowling close by. She had no earthly idea as to how much time had passed, but surely no one had ever been thrown through a portal, attacked by a mad vampire, and imprisoned over the same frame that she had.

There were footsteps, fast and disarrayed, somewhere above her. She managed a shaky breath and pulled herself up to look at the ceiling expectantly.

"Myrnin?" She coughed, earning a shuffle from above.

"Myrnin, help me. You need to _let me out, right now."_

There was silence that was filled by only her labored breathing, and then an almost inaudible voice.

"I can't do that, Claire. Had I the control to allow myself near you, I would. This is for your _safety._ You must trust me."

"Stop it, Myrnin. Unlock the cage right now. _Let me out of here."_

No answer. She hammered a hand on the side of the cage, throwing herself on it. She let out a pained gasp and rolled onto her side, clenching her fists to her side and struggling to regain her breath.

"Claire?" She could hear him nearing the cage entrance, and then he was there, a concerned and pained look pulling at his face.

"Myrnin, why are you _doing_ this?" She would have screamed it at him, if she were able, but it came out as a hoarse remark from her lungs.

"You shouldn't have come, Claire." He paused, looking as if he wanted to reach out to her just then, and help her. Except, he didn't. " I'm afraid I'm not at all well, child."

"Maybe… you should h-" she broke off, suddenly, grimacing and letting out a stifled cry as the burning in her damaged ribcage expanded. Myrnin was suddenly there, lifting her head, hushing her and grazing a hand over her torso.

"Claire, I am going to help you. Do _not_ give me the satisfaction of your retreat, or your small luck earlier shall not be repeated." He sounded torn, as if it was all he could do not to kill her, in that very instant. Claire gave a shaky nod, and Myrnin extracted a small syringe, piercing it into her side before she could protest. The last thing she felt were his cold hands holding her face as she pulled in another shaky breath and fell into unconsciousness.

…..

He hadn't _meant_ to, in all honesty.

He had sat here for weeks, going mad, getting sicker and sicker. Without Claire, he eventually couldn't create the dosages he needed, and the best he could manage to do was inject himself with powerful sterilizers that would keep him catatonic, at the very most.

But then, a portal had opened up, and the foolish girl had tumbled through, Alice in the cave of a madman. It hadn't taken at all long before she was pinned under his grasp, her throat there, in his reach..

He almost wished he hadn't recognized her. It was all he could do not to drain her, after he had her down, and he was so very hungry. Damn this child, the one who had constantly caused him so much agony. He was a monster, and he could have killed her, given his state. So why hadn't he?

There was no time to think upon it. He was unable to comprehend how the portals had opened up, and he had Claire shut away in the cage, like the foolish child should. He sat outside for a day, before she woke, unable to think of anything but her blood.

And now, she was hurt. At his doing. He had to _help her…._

_But why, Myrnin? Of what importance is she to you? You could kill her. You must kill her. You're mad, it is your nature. You will kill her, sooner or later. It's in your blood._

_Foul deeds will rise,__  
__Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes._

He lifted the hem of her blouse, and froze when he saw the bruise that was spread heinously across her ribs. It was in the shape of his hand, he realized, from when he had attacked her. He watched the labored rise and fall of her chest, and got to work, trying to heal what pain he had caused her.

Damn this foolish child, and damn the gods which cursed him to love her.

…..

_Don't run,_ Claire remembered Miranda had said, before she had thrown her into the portal.

Claire was awake again, a bandage around her chest, her back on the hard lab table.

She jumped up, a little, as an image materialized in front of her, and Miranda's face came into an eerie view, luminescent even in the dimly lit laboratory.

And then she _grabbed her by the hair,_ knocking Claire to the ground in one fluid motion. Claire hardly had time to react before she was looking up at the barrel of a pistol in the ghost's hand.


End file.
